Yan Chi Keung eats takeaway outside his wire cage home - there are no cooking facilities

Tai Lun Po walks to the bathroom which he shares with the other residents

Occupants must share toilets and washing facilities, which are rudimentary. Many of the apartments have no kitchens, forcing their impoverished residents to spend there meagre incomes on takeaway food.

The cage homes have been a running scandal in Hong Kong's housing market for decades, yet rather than disappear, they are on the rise.

As the world economic crisis has lashed the city a former British territory whose economy is focused on financial services, more have been forced to turn to them for a place to stay.

The alternative is life on the streets.

Mr Yan smokes a cigarette amid his neighbours in his cage flat

Tai Lun Po walks the corridors of his Mongkok Hong Kong cage home

Tang Man Wai, 60, a retired restaurant worker, is forced to spend what little money he has on take-away food

A building in Mongkok that houses cage people, sometimes squeezed twenty to a room

One cage dweller, Cheung, who lives in Sham Shui Po, told the Asia Times Online he endures appallingly cramped and fetid conditions.

'The temperature inside the cages can be two to three degrees higher than what they are outside,' he said.

'It's really uncomfortable, and sometimes I cannot sleep until after 5 in the morning.'

Cockroaches, wall lizards, lice and rats are common. 'Sometimes I am worried if lizards or cockroaches will crawl into my ears at night,' said Cheung.